Western Stars is due on June 14; it's his first studio project in five years, following 2014's High Hopes.

Springsteen has said the new album included material written around the same time as 2012's Wrecking Ball, but he put it in the vault as he worked on other projects. "It’s kind of waiting for its moment," Springsteen said in 2017. "Good music doesn’t go away.”

Ron Aniello returns as co-producer on Western Stars. He's compared the songs to Aaron Copland because of their "very open landscape feel," adding that "you wouldn’t call it country," but Springsteen shot down that analogy.

"Really, that record is influenced by Southern California pop music of the late '60s and early '70s. Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach – those kinds of records," Springsteen said. "I don’t know if people will hear those influences, but that was what I had in my mind. It gave me something to hook an album around. It gave me some inspiration to write. It’s a singer-songwriter record, connected to my solo records writing-wise, more Tunnel of Love and Devils and Dust – but it’s not like them at all. Just different characters living their lives.”